The Friendship Scar
by OrtonFan
Summary: When Rose proposes that she and Bella give each other friendship scars, she expects her to immediately dismiss it as dumb, but will Bella be as reluctant as Rose thinks she'll be?


Disclaimer: I own nothing. Just my crazy misconceptions:)

**BETA: LynetteCullen. Whom I love dearly.**

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"Bella can I ask you something?" Rose questioned her life-long friend Isabella Swan. She had been thinking on this for a long time, and she thought that now would be as good a time as any to ask for this. Bella looked up from her notebook and over at Rose. Taking the expecting look on her face as a sign for her to continue, she went on. "We're best friends right?" she asked.

"Of course we are," she answered, a little curious to see where this was going. She closed her notebook, since class was almost over anyway, and returned her pen to its holder on the side flap, giving Rose her undivided attention. "Why did you ask?" she inquired.

"Because I want us to do something," she stated. She couldn't help but giggle as Bella leaned back, quirking her eyebrow. "Not that. I want us to physically symbolize our friendship," she began to explain before Bella cut her off.

"Rose, what are you talking about?" Bella asked.

"I could tell you if you'd let me finish," Rose scolded. "Using a process that I'm not going to explain right now, we are going to give ourselves friendship scars," she finished. By the look on Bella's face, she knew that Bella really didn't want to do it, but then again, she hadn't really expected her to want to do it.

"Where did you come up with that idea?" Bella asked after a moment of silence. She wasn't as opposed to the idea as Rose probably thought she was. She actually kind of liked the idea of her and Rose having a permanent remnant of their friendship. It would mean that they would always stick together and watch out for each other, because they were branded. Before Rose could answer her question, she blurted out, "I want to do it."

"Really?" Rose asked, completely shocked that she wanted to do it. Totally baffled, she stammered out, "I, I can't believe it." Usually Bella was against purposefully scaring yourself for any reason, so Rose was in total astonishment.

"Why can't you believe it?" Bella questioned. She didn't understand why Rose thought she was such a good girl. She'd done some things that Rose couldn't even imagine. "You have to stop assuming that I'm not gonna want to do something that you suggest," she stated.

"I know," Rose admitted. She was about to say something else, but the bell rang, signaling the end of class. As they stood from their desks, Rose added, "If you're really sure, be at my house around 7." Bella nodded in acknowledgement before leaving the room. "Hope she doesn't chicken out," she muttered to herself.

The girls didn't see each other much for the rest of the day. They spoke in passing and at lunch, but it wasn't until Bella showed up on Rose's doorstep at ten minutes before 7, that they sat down and talked.

"I have to admit that I didn't think you were coming," Rose started the conversation. She and Bella were seated on the bean bag chairs in Rose's room in front of her flat screen TV. She looked over at Bella before adding, "But I'm glad you did."

Bella met Rose's gaze with a faint smile on her lips. "I liked your idea," she admitted. "And I want us to do this," she finished. Bella wondered why Rose was still so shocked at her wanting to do this. She also wondered sometimes if Rose wanted to ask her about other things. She at one time did have negative views of some things, but most of those views had changed. "So let's get this started," she prompted, practically jumping up from her chair.

"If you say so," Rose said as she stood from her chair. They made their way over to the small bathroom attached to Rose's room. Upon entrance, Rose had expected Bella to see the spread that she had laid out, and immediately decide that this was a bad idea.

Instead, Bella just walked over to the counter and asked, "How are we going to do this?" She looked at the things that were meticulously placed on the counter: a pillow, hot glue gun and two small heart shapes that had been cut out of hard plastic. She hadn't imagined anything like this, and was curious to how this was going to go down.

"We're gonna squeeze the hot glue on the plastic and stick it to the tops of our arms. Then, were gonna let it dry, and when we rip it off, we're gonna have friendship scars," Rose explained, walking over to the items on the counter. "You ready?" she asked, flashing a quick smile in Bella's direction.

"I am," she answered.

"Alrighty then. Let's get started," Rose stated, moving to the hot glue gun that she had plugged up earlier. "We're gonna have to do this quickly, so who's going first?" she questioned.

"Me," Bella replied quickly. Rose had expected this decision to take longer or for Bella to suggest that she go first. Bella took off her pullover, revealing her tank top that was underneath. "Where's it going? Here?" she asked, pointing to the top of her right arm, just below her shoulder.

Rose nodded. She took one of the star- shaped pieces of plastic and positioned the glue gun over it and expertly squeezed the glue around the edges before pressing it to the designated spot on Bella's arm. Bella hissed at the initial contact, but made no other reaction. "My turn. You wanna do the honors?" she asked Bella.

"Why of course," she answered, pulling the other piece of plastic over to her. She repeated the same ministrations as Rose, before pressing the star shape to the exact same spot on Rose's right arm.

"GODDAMN!" Rose yelled. Bella had made it seem as if it simply stung, but it burned like a motherfucker. She fought the tears that automatically came to her eyes. "That's not funny Bella," she stated after she saw that Bella had doubled over with laughter at her reaction. "Now we let it cool," Rose said after she had collected herself, almost dreading the pain of removing it.

Still giggling, Bella slapped the place where the cardboard was, causing a loud gasp from Rose. "Don't do that," Rose hissed through her teeth. Bella only snickered in response before turning on her heel and leaving, with Rose trailing behind her sullenly.

They plopped back on the bean bag chairs, and looked at their arms. "Do you think it'll work?" Bella asked after a moment of silence.

"I think it will," Rose responded. "The skin should come up too when we rip these off," she speculated, suddenly feeling queasy at the thought of the pain that was sure to come with the removal of the plastic.

Bella saw Rose's skin pale at the statement, and couldn't help the grin that creeped across her face. "Don't worry Rose, I'll hold your hand," she promised. "Well. It's been about five minutes. Should we do it now, or wait a little longer?" she inquired.

"Now should be fine," Rose answered, more than ready for this to be over. For the second time that night, they rose from the chairs and entered the bathroom. Once inside, Rose began rocking back and for the nervously, not really wanting hers to be removed first.

"I'll go first you big baby," Bella said. "You're gonna have to do the ripping," she informed Rose. Rose's eyes practically bugged out of her head at the statement. "Oh come on. You don't expect me to do it myself do you?" she asked.

Bella never would have expected Rose to be so scary. She had always seemed fearless and stoic. Bella couldn't help but think that this whole thing had brought them closer. They had learned more about each other today than they had learned in the sixteen years that they had been friends.

Reluctantly, Rose reached out and tugged at the plastic, testing its hold. With the way it was stuck to Bella's skin, Rose definitely knew that her idea was going to work. She really hated to hurt Bella like this. Hurting herself was one thing, but Bella was a totally different animal. Just burning her with the glue earlier had made Rose feel terrible.

"Do it Rose," Bella commanded. "I won't cry," she promised. And the truth was, she probably wouldn't. She wasn't as soft as she appeared to the outside world. "Now," she urged. "Damn," Bella screamed out as she felt the plastic be ripped from her arm. "Let me see," a single tear fell from her eye. "It's beautiful," she whispered, gazing at it in the mirror.

Aside from the blood running down her arm, and the burn, it was everything that she had thought it would be. Well, not exactly, seeing as how it hadn't healed yet. "Here," Rose said, handing her some paper towels to catch the blood before it hit the floor. "You lied," Rose stated, reaching up to wipe the tear from Bella's face as she pressed the towels to her arm to stop the bleeding. "You said you wouldn't cry," Rose reminded her.

"I didn't cry because it hurt," Bella admitted. "I cried because this is going to be here forever, and every time I look at it, it's going to be a reminder of what a good friend you are, and how much I love you," she explained to Rose. This was the first that Bella had ever vocalized her feelings for her best friend. They had known that they loved each other, but neither had ever said anything about it.

'_I'm not gonna cry, I'm not gonna cry,' _Rose repeated over and over in her head. "I love you too Bella, and I will always be glad that we did this," Rose declared. "Now were you playing when you said you'd hold my hand earlier?" she asked, remembering that her scar had not been made.

"I wasn't," she answered. As she stepped toward Rose, Bella realized that her love for Rose was deeper than she thought it was. She more than loved Rose. She was in love with Rose.

Trying to wipe the thoughts from her mind, she stepped closer to Rose and linked hands with her, intertwining their fingers. She reached up and grabbed the cardboard and whispered, "You ready?" into Rose's ear. Rose closed her eyes and nodded her head. Not wanting the pain to be too dreadful for Rose, she ripped the plastic off without warning.

"OH FUUUCK!" Rose yelled so loud that the neighbors must've heard. Bella pressed some paper towels to the spot. "That hurt," Rose whimpered as she laid her head on Bella's shoulder. "But I'm still glad we did it," she professed as she looked up at Bella.

The moment she looked up into Bella's beautiful brown eyes, she knew that she was looking into the eyes of the person that she was in love with. Without really thinking about what she was doing, Rose tilted her head and pressed her lips to Bella's. She expected to be met with resistance from Bella at her forwardness, but instead she was met with eagerness.

The kiss was slow and tender, and when they finally pulled away, Bella said, "I'm really, really glad we did this Rose."

"Me too," Rose replied.

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